When Fusion Garage invited us down to their Singapore office yesterday for a look at the JooJoo tablet, we went with the assumption that they would be showing us the final software running on actual production hardware. As it happens, we were shown the same device that the company used for its launch back in December.

Nevertheless, I had a chance to speak with founder and CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan, and was able to confirm additional information on the company’s plans, and about the device itself.

One of the first questions that we asked was whether Fusion Garage intends to modify its price in the wake of Apple’s launch of the iPad last week. The answer is no, the company has not changed its plans. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” Rathakrishnan told Ars. He is also confident that competition will not result in decreased sales for the JooJoo, noting that “The market is big enough for more than Apple.”

Microsoft has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Kidaro. What is interesting is that Microsoft has now confirmed that the technologies acquired from Kidaro will be incorporated into Microsoft's existing Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) product within the first half of 2009.

As noted earlier—and now reiterated by Shanen Boettcher, General Manager of Windows Product Management for the enterprise, the new product suite will be called by the (slightly) easier name: Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization.

Microsoft pledged to continue investing in the area of manageability, noting that it has invested over $400 million to develop MDOP so far.

In what some detractors are dismissing as a game of catch-up, Microsoft unveiled a prototype late last week that can best described as a multitouch system.

What is so unique about Microsoft's invention—named LaserTouch, is that it doesn't rely on the presence of a multitouch display. Instead, LaserTouch uses a low-cost infrared camera and lasers to track user interaction on an otherwise normal screen. The idea is that any screen from a conventional desktop or even a projector can be retrofitted for multitouch interactions.

The technique is simple, with the real magic residing in the system's processing software. Indeed, the range of potential applications could prove more interesting than just plain multitouch alone—how does a virtual chess or boxing game sound?

If you are reading 1 Microsoft Way and following up on Microsoft news, chances are that you use Microsoft Word. In that case, you might be interested in the evolution of Microsoft Word as chronicled by Malaysian Blogger "ccchai" from Kuching.

I summarized the various versions below:

> 1989: Microsoft Word as a DOS application

Word 2.0 came as part of Microsoft Office

1994: Word 6.0 came as part of Microsoft Office 4.0

1995: Word 7.0 came as part of Office 95

1996: Word 97 came and brought us the 'beloved' Office Assistant aka the
'clippy-guy'

1999: Word 2000 came as part of Office 2000. Office Genuine Advantage is born.

2001: Word 2002 came as part of Office XP

2003: "Microsoft Office Word" came as part of Office 2003

2007: Microsoft Office Word 2007 came as part of Office 2007

And oh yes, the next release will be known as Office 14, conveniently bypassing the number "13" that the superstitious among us might not like.

Microsoft has worked out an agreement with the Library of Congress to deploy Microsoft Silverlight on the library's new Web site. In return, Microsoft will provide an initial grant worth a total of $3 million in technology, services as well as funding.

The grant is to be used to enhance the online accessibility and interactivity of about 800 of the Library of Congress’ prominent holdings. In addition, the deal also entails bringing in kiosks running on Microsoft Vista that highlight featured documents at the library.

Microsoft Silverlight is a media platform that Microsoft aspires to compete with the likes of Adobe Flash. Like Flash, Silverlight applications are essentially cross-platform, as long as a browser plug-in is available for the target browser of choice. It can be used to deliver "media experiences" and "rich interactive applications" on the Web.

Exploit code for a vulnerability that exists in the WPS to RTF converter in Microsoft Office 2003 has been released. The flaw could be exploited by means of a maliciously crafted WPS file and can enable an attacker to take complete control of an affected system. WPS is the extension used by Microsoft Works.

This flaw came about due to stack overflow error in the function that is used to read from WPS files. When the size of the TEXT section is modified to a number longer than 0x10, a stack overflow results.

Exploitation will obviously require that the affected converters be installed. In a corporate environment, the converters are usually set to be installed from hard disk on first use but, for most users, the prompt for the installation media might help mitigate the seriousness of this flaw.

Microsoft was sued last week for allegedly infringing on a patent pertaining to paid search methods. Google was also named in the lawsuit, filed by a company named Paid Search Engine Tools of Liberty Township, Ohio.

The company said in its lawsuit that both Microsoft's adCenter paid search platform and Google's AdWords program infringed on its patent no. 7,043,450, "Paid Search Engine Bid Management."

Filed in 2002 and granted in May of 2006, the patent describes a method of "for overcoming deficiencies and inefficiencies in the current paid search engine keyword bidding market, by providing keyword bidders with information they need to better optimize their use of paid search engines. The system accumulates bid amounts for a plurality of target keywords at one or more paid Internet search engines, and presents the bid amounts to a user, enabling the user to evaluate and optimize bids on those keywords."

ZDNet writer Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has written a blog post in which he measured some of the performance gains experienced on his Phenom quad-core rig after installing Vista SP1.

When copying a single 644MB test file, SP1 was able to perform it in 10 seconds versus 17 seconds on Vista RTM. Moving the same file to an external USB HD yielded results of 10 seconds compared to 25 seconds in favor of Vista SP1.

In another test where a folder containing numerous files and folders (3,495 files and 30 folders totaling 5.16GB) was read from an external USB hard drive, Vista SP1 was able to grab the data in just 79 seconds, versus 215 seconds under Vista RTM.

Microsoft paid an undisclosed amount for the acquisition, at the same time putting a stop to Danger's plans to go public; Danger had already filed preliminary paperwork for doing so back in December 2007.

In a statement, Microsoft entertainment unit president Robbie Bach said, "The addition of Danger serves as a perfect complement to our existing software and services, and also strengthens our dedication to improving mobile experiences centered around individuals and what they like."

These latest updates include new features to Microsoft’s Mobile Services Protocol as well as a new software development kit (SDK). As a result, developers will now be able to create mobile versions of Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Spaces.

Microsoft also announced the availability of Windows Live @mobile program. The idea behind this program is to enable mobile operators to easily deploy selected Microsoft mobile services to their customers. A plethora of business models are available to help the operators monetize on their offerings. Currently, the @mobile program is available in 46 countries and will be expanding to additional markets in the next year.

A technology preview for accessing MSN Direct content on Windows Mobile-based devices is now available for download.

MSN Direct is an initiative from Microsoft to deliver personalized information as a wireless service. Users can receive instant access to various information such weather and stock updates, as well as various news pertaining to sports, business, and world news. Content is automatically downloaded by the software client via wireless data connection.

In a press release, Eric Lang, general manager of the MSN Direct initiative said, "This is the first time MSN Direct content has been made available to mobile phones, and it is a strong next step for the delivery of MSN Direct content where customers have said they need it the most. We are excited about the opportunities this new application will bring to mobile operators, consumers and the industry.”

According to Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet blogs, Michael Sievert, corporate vice president for Windows Product Marketing, will be moving on from Microsoft. Word has it that his departure will be officially announced in another few weeks.

Sievert came with high accolades, having served for three years as executive vice president and chief marketing officer at AT&T Wireless. He was also twice named by Advertising Age magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in marketing.

Microsoft today announced that Service Pack 1 (SP1) of Windows Vista has been released to manufacturing. Eagerly anticipated by Vista aficionados around the world, SP1 will be initially available in five languages—English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. Users will be able to download SP1 beginning in mid-March, as Microsoft is timing its release to coincide with the retail availability of new systems pre-installed with SP1.

The beta testing of Vista SP1 identified device drivers which were improperly designed and likely to cause system incompatibilities with SP1. As such, Microsoft will be making SP1 available to Vista users in mid-March via Windows Update, which will look for the presence of problematic drivers and not install on the systems it finds with the drivers. No further details about who made the drivers, or the devices or specific technical problems have been given by Microsoft, but the company says it is currently working with some of their its hardware partners to make the necessary adjustments.

Here's the full schedule: Mid-March will see selected languages of SP1 made available via the Microsoft Download Center and on Windows Update. Customers who visit Windows Update can choose to install SP1. Mid-April will see SP1 pushed to systems with the automatic update option enabled. Full language support for SP1 will also come in April.

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Windows Vista's worldwide release. Microsoft has issued a press release to highlight the achievements of its flagship operating system. Some highlights:

Windows Vista now supports over 43,000 hardware products, almost doubling the 23,000 at launch.

There are over 60 million discrete DirectX 10 parts—which only Vista supports, shipped to date.

An IPSos study has found that an average of 79 percent of users feel that Windows
Vista is safer than their previous operating system.

More than 100 million Vista licenses has been issued to date.

Neil Charney, general manager of Microsoft Windows Client observed that some of the features made available in Vista might yet prove indispensable once they catch on. He notes the example of Windows XP's built-in support for wireless networking which most people didn't find too exciting when it first appeared. It is now widely used, however.

The release candidate of Windows Vista SP1 has already been released, with its actual release expected to be soon.

Through released to manufacture in November 2007, it was previously available only to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers. As of yesterday, Visual Studio 2008 is now available via volume licensing and also for purchase as a full packaged product.

Visual Studio 2008 brings many new features to the table, such as multitargeting and Language-Integrated Query (LINQ). Multitargeting allows the newest version of Visual Studio to build code targeting older versions of the .NET Framework, while LINQ lets developers do native queries without the use of specialized languages.

Microsoft announced that it has added more than 30 companies to its Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program, which was launched in October 2007 with an initial pool of 20 selected companies. This brings the tally of emerging businesses under the program to over 50.

The Microsoft Startup Accelerator program is designed to help startups accelerate software development and market visibility through customized engagement plans. This comprises access to premier support staff, software licenses and subscriptions, new technologies, and possibly access to Microsoft Technology Centers for software testing and architecture guidance.

Daniel Lewin, corporate vice president of Strategic and Emerging Business Development at Microsoft, remarked in a statement, "We are very pleased with the excitement and momentum behind the program from the entrepreneurial community, and we will continue to focus on expanding the program to support the success of an even broader set of startups worldwide.”

Microsoft has renewed their commitment for the next five years to the Partners in Learning program. Partners in Learning is a program that provides resources and training to the education community to enable students to reach their full potential. It is a key education initiative under Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the company’s commitment to creating sustained social and economic opportunity for everyone.

Over the last 15 years since its launch in 2003, Partners in Learning has touched the lives of more than 90 million students, teachers as well as education policymakers in 101 countries. Microsoft wants to triple the impact of its programs over the next five years.

Partners in Learning’s consists of three core programs: Innovative Teachers, Innovative Students and Innovative Schools.

Microsoft has opened the source code to the .NET Framework libraries under a read-only reference license. Developers who want to check out the source code need only upgrade to the newly released Visual Studio 2008 to gain access to it.

According to a Microsoft blog entry, the sources for the following libraries have been made available:

The president of Microsoft’s Business Division, Jeff Raikes, plans to retire in September this year, after 26 years of service. Raikes left his role as a Visicalc engineering manager at Apple to join Microsoft in 1981. He currently oversees a broad stretch of Microsoft’s product line, including its Office, Exchange and Dynamics software.

In an interview with CNet's News.com, Raikes noted that Office—which now has more than 500 million users—didn’t exist when he joined the company. Microsoft had only 100 employees at that time, compared to about 70,000 now.

CEO Steve Ballmer praised Raikes, saying that "There is no overstating the incredible impact that Jeff has had during his amazing career at Microsoft."

If you're a Twitter fan, you might be interested to know about a new stand-alone Twitter client based on Microsoft's WPF. Named Witty, the application leverages the API released by Twitter developers to exist outside the Web browser.

WPF, or Windows Presentation Foundation, is the "next-generation" presentation sub-system for Windows (our own Peter Bright discussed it in detail last year). Formerly code-named Avalon, it is built into Windows Vista by default, providing developers and designers with a unified programming model for building rich Windows clients. To date, though, WPF apps have been few and far between (though they do exist).